


Hunting for Santa

by Luna_Vadash



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Assassin's Creed - Freeform, Childhood Friends, Christmas, Cute, Cute Kids, Gen, Presents, Santa Claus - Freeform, hunting santa claus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:15:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28486701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Vadash/pseuds/Luna_Vadash
Comments: 6
Kudos: 7





	Hunting for Santa

"Have you heard about this Christian prisoner?" Malik asked while walking into Altaïr's room. In his hands, there was a box with knives they were supposed to sharpen for the Assassins. Maintaining knives was one of the duties for children of the Assassins, it was teaching them patience and respect for the weapons, the value of hard, honest work.

Altaïr raised his gaze from the knife he was polishing and looked at his best friend questioningly.

"I heard him talking with another prisoner. Do you know they believe in Santa Claus?"

"What is Santa Claus?" asked Altaïr, furrowing his eyebrows.

"According to him, it's some priest who used to give children presents and help people in need. Even after his death, he comes back every 6th December to give children presents." Malik was quite excited while talking story about Saint Nicholas. He had always been interested in history, in books and all the secrets and legends, something Altaïr couldn't quite understand. But they still were best friends, who supported each other no matter what. They got into troubles together, and together they escaped them.

"They said they received sweets and little gifts years ago, and they even tried to capture him, but no avail."

"You don't believe in such nonsense, do you?"

"6th December is tomorrow. Why won't we check it out? We can make a trap and capture this Christian ghost. Don't you think Al Mualim would be happy?"

Since Malik knew Altaïr since the beginning, he knew how to manipulate him. Altaïr would do anything to impress Al Mualim. So the moment Altaïr looked away, Malik knew he had won. He always did this, to hide his thoughtful expression.

But for Altaïr, who lost his father too early and never had the opportunity to meet his mother, Al Mualim was the only adult who cared about him. He was his substitute for a family, the only one he knew.

"Fine. We can try to hunt down that Claus of yours."

They decided to set a trap in Kadar's room.

He was only four years old, still an innocent child who did not yet know about the Assassins. He was blessed with unawareness of the secret war they were participating in. And because of it, they decided he was the best person to observe. If in the whole of Masyaf there was a child who deserved a present from a weird man, it was Kadar. And because it wasn't unusual for Malik to visit his brother at night choosing his room was the most uncomplicated option. Only Altaïr had to sneak in with all the necessary tools.

Soon they started to work on their traps. Malik was making sure no one would be able to walk through the door without getting their attention.

His trap was simple - whoever would walk through the door would pull the string that was attached to the heavy bucket full of stones. It should be enough to stun a grown-up man, but not enough to kill anyone. Unless it was someone short, who would be hit straight in the head. But both - Malik and Altaïr assumed that Santa Claus cannot be a little man. As someone who was breaking into people's houses and castles, he had to be strong enough to fight guards! 

On the other side of the room, Altaïr was setting another trap on the window. If Santa Claus decided to come through it, he would activate another mechanism. String attached to the window would make a ball filled with white paint fall on the man's face, impairing his vision. Neither of the traps were supposed to kill anyone. They were just giving Malik and Altaïr a chance to attack the man and capture him. In the end, Al Mualim definitely would question a strange man, with the ability to break into Masyaf Castle.

As soon as all the traps were set, both boys sat down on the floor, in complete darkness so as not to scare away the Santa Claus. They were wrapped in one blanket and had knives in their hands, ready to attack whenever someone would try to sneak in.

Time was passing terribly slowly when they sat like this, waiting. Before midnight it was Malik who slowly started to drift away. His head fell on Altaïr's shoulder. The other boy wasn't feeling better either, his eyelids became heavier with each passing seconds.

"Don't you dare fall to sleep on me, it was your idea," he muttered and yawned.

"What do think Santa Claus looks like?" asked Malik, deciding that talking should keep them both awake.

"I don't know. Maybe he is as old as Al Mualim? Strong and stealthy...?"

"And smart! He needs to avoid all kinds of traps, I'm sure we aren't the only one who tried to capture him."

"But we are the best!" Altaïr said, a bit too loud, as the result, Malik quickly covered his mouth. Kadar turned around in his bed but didn't wake up so Malik let go of Altaïr face.

"How do you want to be an Assassin if you can't keep silent?" Malik furrowed his brows, mocking Altaïr, it was this pleasure he could hardly deny himself.

"On the day I will be better than you, you will see. And all generations of Assassins will tell the story about how I caught Santa Claus," he muttered, making Malik snort.

"You wish."

Then, they heard a sound, one that made them jerk up.

"Did you hear that?" Malik asked excitedly. Soon there was another sound, louder this time. It sounded like someone was walking while carrying something heavy. Or maybe just the person was weighty? It didn't sound like steps of an Assassin.

Both boys stood up, ready to attack the intruder. It was clear for them that Santa Claus would come through the door, so Malik and Altaïr had to be ready for attack. They heard as the steps got closer and then there was a thud on the ground that made them jump. The door slowly opened, activating the mechanism and the bucket full of stones fell down. The person managed to jump away before the attack, so the bucked hit the wall and spill stones around with a loud noise. It made Kadar wake up suddenly, but Altaïr and Malik didn't waste a second, they jumped on the person, ready to fight.

"Malik? Altaïr?! What on earth are you doing?!" the angry voice of Malik's father made them stop midstep. Soon in the room other Assassins appeared, all still in their sleeping robes, wielding weapons, ready to fight and protect their home. No one expected to find two 8 years old boys, still holding knives and Faheem, Malik's father, looking at them disapprovingly.

"I'm sorry for waking you up, brothers. I have to talk to my son and his friend," he said, dismissing the rest of the annoyed Assassins. He waited until they were alone and then crossed his arms.

"What on earth are you two doing! This thing," he pointed at the metal bucket, "could kill someone untrained!"

"I'm sorry dad, we just tried to catch Santa Claus," said Malik and inclined his head apologetically.

"You tried to do what?" the man asked, not understanding anything. He was about to ask another question when the window slammed open.

Both boys looked at it surprised and saw their trap untouched.

"Did you see it?! We set a trap there!"

"He has to have broken inside already!" exclaimed Altaïr.

Faheem furrowed his brows and stopped the boys from going to the window. He went himself to investigate the trap and with surprise realised that it was actually really well done. As soon as he closed the window the ball full of paint fell down and splashed on his arm when he covered his face.

"What are you two...-"

"I'm sorry, Faheem. Al Mualim wants to talk with them. Right now." An Assassin just walked through the door, interrupting the talk Faheem was about to give to the boys.

"What were you thinking?!" Al Mualim was looking at the two boys, standing in front of him. They were both looking at the ground, visibly ashamed about how this whole situation turned out.

"We wanted to catch Santa Claus..." said Malik silently.

"Why?"

"We thought you'd be happy if we gave you a Christian spy," added Altaïr.

Al Mualim's gaze became softer when he heard their reasoning. He couldn't hide the pride he suddenly felt. Two boys wanted to catch Santa, not to take gifts, but to serve the Brotherhood. Indeed, they had a great future in the Brotherhood.

Al Mualim walked closer to boys and kneeled in front of them, putting his hands on their shoulders in a fatherly gesture.

"Santa Claus is a legend. Christians tell it to their children and they themselves hide presents for them. But I'm actually proud of you two. You wanted to serve the Brotherhood and from what I heard, you were well prepared. So I won't draw any consequences. But you have to clean Faheem's bracer and robe and clean Kadar's room."

Both boys looked at each other and then at their master, with smiles.

"Thank you, Master!" they both exclaimed.

"And don't do that again."

"Yes, Master!"

"Now, go straight to your beds."

As soon as the boys came back to the room they shared, they noticed something weird. On their beds, there were little packages. They immediately grabbed them and unpacked them, only to see sweets and a little note saying 'from Santa Claus'. Grins appeared on each boys' face as they looked at each other, already knowing that next year they will be much better prepared.


End file.
